Erin, Author at The Sunny Side Up Blog

Organization

03.24.14

Organized Kitchen Utensil Drawer

Happy Monday friends! Made a little progress on my to-organize list this weekend! Still slowly making my way around the kitchen.

Having my silverware drawer nice and tidy inspired me to organize the rest of my kitchen utensils.

Yeah. This drawer had seen better days.

Actually it hadn’t. It has been a mess since we moved in and was driving me crazy!

A quick wipe down, a quick toss of things I didn’t need, a few organizers from Target,

and 15 minutes later…

we were back in business! Guess the excuse of “I can’t find my cooking utensils so I can’t cook” isn’t going to work anymore. No worries. I’ve still got the “I haven’t had time to learn how to operate these new ovens” excuse in my pocket. I figure that’s good for at least six more months. Kidding!

Sort of. :)

Nothing too complicated about a quick project like this. I just grouped similar things together.

And then placed my measuring cups and spoons on the side.

I put my most often used spoons and spatulas in one of my white pitchers by the stove.

Then I cleaned out my fridge and wiped off the counters and snapped a few pictures.

Just for fun.

Still a bit bare, but nothing like a clean kitchen.

With organized drawers.

One more thing to check off the list!

Take 15 minutes to organize your utensil drawer. Instant pick me up!

Something a lot of us need on a Monday.

xoxo, Erin

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Home Decor

03.21.14

Decorating with vintage books

Last month when we were visiting family in Utah after our ski trip I decided to shop my mom’s house a bit for decor. Do you ever do that? Shop your mom’s house for items she’s dying to get rid of and just doesn’t know it yet? And you’re graciously there to take those items off of her hands? Well. I’m a pro at it. :) Started in college when I used to shop her pantry for food and her bathroom cupboards for Paul Mitchell hair spray. Good times.

(Love you mom.)

Anyway, I was peeking around in one of her storage closets and came across part of her vintage book collection. My mom has collected old children’s books for years and seriously has enough to fill a bedroom. She is an educator and lover of children’s books (we have a lot in common!) but she especially adores books from her childhood and her parents’ childhood. Growing up I always thought her book collection was so strange. What in the world would she ever DO with all of those books? They were so tattered and OLD looking. But I suddenly saw that old book collection with new eyes. They are so tattered and OLD looking. How incredibly cool! And vintage! And stylish! Suddenly I knew exactly what she needed to do with all of those books. Loan them to me! :)

So I rounded some up and after telling my mom how cutting edge she was without even knowing it, I convinced her to let me take them home. Back at my place I spread them out on my coffee table and knew they would be perfect to add to my media cabinet shelves. (p.s. – in this picture you can see a peek of a rug I tried in this space, but it’s already returned and back to the store. Rug update post coming soon!)

I grouped some of the books together but when I spread them out on my shelves I wasn’t loving the colors. I tried to select covers with blues/greens in them (the look I’m going for), but the soft faded colors just made things look drab.

So I turned them around. And I love the look! The tan, worn pages add the exact character and cohesiveness I was looking for.

So I placed a few here…

and I placed a few there…

And while these shelves are still bare and nowhere near styled (just playing around for now with things I already have) I do think the vintage books add such a nice touch and are here to stay.

Moral of this story is to:

A) Try turning books around to style bookshelves (it keeps things simple and cohesive and less cluttered).

B) Shop your mom’s house for decor. You never know what treasures are lurking in her closets.

C) Decorate with things that mean something to you. Now I feel like I have a piece of my mom in my family room with me all the time.

Answer?

D) All of the above.

The End.

xoxo, Erin

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Organization

03.19.14

Storing kids’ artwork

I am s-l-o-w-l-y making progress in my office. Talk about a mess! So much to organize. I’ll share progress pics at some point. Today I tackled my kids’ art work. I have shared ways I organize their school work that I want to save for their albums. To be honest, I try not to save a lot! They come home with SO much. I am very selective and only save a handful of things from each school year that really shows their progress and personality. But sometimes they come home with larger projects, reports, or art that they have worked so hard on that I really want to keep.

That is where these bins have come in handy.

Simple bins from Target that are a great size for larger school work.

Each of my kids’ have one and they are perfect for holding larger keepsakes.

Plus they slide right under their beds.

Here is something else each box holds…

I was barely sane enough while my girls were younger to keep a simple journal of their quotes. Funny or sweet things they said when they were little that made me smile. These books are such a treasure! The stuff I wrote isn’t even that funny, but it reminds me of how they used to talk and the amusing things that would come out of their little mouths. Like how yesterday I had my hair up in a bun (not normal for me) and Kole saw me and said “Oh! Mommy! Why do you want to look like a different mommy today!?” Or the time Addison saw a picture of Kenny in front of the Colosseum in Rome on our Italy trip and said “there’s my daddy at his office!” :) Kids are 24/7 entertainment, aren’t they?

You know what was fun today? Showing my girls the stuff I’ve saved in their bins. They had a blast looking through them and giggling at their quote books and how their handwriting looked on school projects, etc.

They also LOVE going through their Project Life Albums and it made me think (scary – I know :) about how I save things for them and create albums for them with their future in mind – thinking how fun it will be when they’re my age looking back. But the joy these things bring them has shown me that it’s just as important for them to see albums and past work now – while they’re growing up. I need to involve them more in the memory keeping. More thoughts on that at some point in the future. :)

For now I’m off to bed with fingers crossed I can get Frozen’s “Let It Go” out of my head. It’s a Frozen frenzy! I put this on Facebook yesterday afternoon and it sounded like many of you were doing the same thing!

Just received word that daddy is coming home at 6:00 tonight (unheard of!) so that we can have a movie party and watch Frozen. Oh the squeals that rang through our house! We’ll see if Kole’s excitement lasts when he is listening to “Let it Go” for the 10,584th time. :)

If you’re in my boat with kids who were counting down to the release date, I hope you all enjoyed the movie as well.

xoxo, Erin

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Home Decor

03.17.14

Butler’s Pantry Shelves (decorated!)

Happy Monday everyone! So excited to share my butler’s pantry shelves with you today! I’m finally starting to decorate my new kitchen. FUN. I’m sure these shelves will be constantly changing but here’s what they look like for now. :)

A closer look. I’ve noticed as I’m decorating that the same types of things are appealing to me. White pitchers (have loved them forever), glass bottles and jars, woods, and of course anything blue/green.

Pantry door is on the right. This is a fun little spot in-between my pantry and formal dining room.

Side view of my pantry door.

I have to share these fun new mixing bowls I found a few weeks ago! I have been on the hunt for new mixing bowls for a while now. I had a set I loved and one of the bowls broke! I really wanted a set that wasn’t glass. I’m notorious for breaking things. :) I also wanted them to be aqua so that I could keep them displayed and they could also function as decor. I walked into Crate and Barrel one day and couldn’t believe my luck. This set was EXACTLY what I was looking for! After months of searching on-line I was thrilled when I landed on these. Perfect sizes and I love the unexpected pop of red for the little bowl!

All stacked up.

Right now I have them displayed with just the three largest bowls showing.

I’m kind of obsessed with wood cutting boards lately. So fun to decorate with them!

I think they really warm up white kitchens.

My other recent fun find are these cute striped dish towels from West Elm.

I also bought a set in grey but I love how the yellow dish towels look next to my lemons.

Fun to see things I love displayed on these open shelves. I think that’s one of the most important things about decorating. Your home should showcase your personality.

And now I have a touch of my personality in the kitchen.

xoxo, Erin

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03.14.14

Another great birthday

Oh my word. Where did the week go? I had a lot to post. And then I never had time to post. It was a busy week. In a good way! Tuesday was my birthday! I turned 27! Ok. 37. But close enough to 27 give or take a year or two. :) I have been busy celebrating! For Valentine’s Day this year my husband gave me an amazing gift. One that made my jaw drop and made me wonder where my real husband was. ;) He told me that for my birthday this year he was taking the day off to watch the kids and sending me to a spa. A what? I said. A spa he said.

Did I mention my jaw dropped? And I might have shed a blissful and grateful tear or two. With my husbands’ 24/7 job I knew this was a big sacrifice for him and it meant a lot. Plus I had never been to a spa before. Or had a whole day off from typical mom duties. What a treat!

So on my birthday I helped get the kids ready and off to school, gave Kenny his instructions for the day – people coming by for house stuff, pick up, homework, therapy, dinner, friend time, snack time, bath time, story time, and all the times in-between, and then took off to dream land!

Here’s a quick pic I snapped while I ate lunch by the spa pool.

After my facial and massage and before my mani/pedi. Do you all hate me now? :)

It didn’t feel real.

I had to periodically pinch myself throughout the day and remind myself it was actually happening.

When I got home that evening (ever so relaxed and zen like) it was almost the kids’ bedtime. Addison surprised me with a clean kitchen (she was so proud that she did it all herself – such a doll!). And my sweet Ellie surprised me with a card that she drew and then had her whole 4th grade class sign. It had “Happy birthday Ellie’s mom!” written all over it next to fancy 4th grade signatures. :) Too cute and such a treasure. The way Kole’s face lit up when I walked in the door was present enough from him (MOMMY’S HOME!). He had patiently waited all day to blow out candles on the cake they all made me (a huge challenge for my little 3 year old). My sweet husband looked beyond exhausted. They were all happy to see me. As much as I loved my day of peace and tranquility at the spa, coming home to those four was my favorite part of the day.

To top off a pretty much perfect birthday week my BFF came to San Diego on vacation and we spent yesterday with her cute family. SO much fun having her over! She was excited to see the new house and we were both thrilled to catch up. We pretty much grew up together and will always be thick as thieves. I love seeing our kids form friendships now. They truly are a second family to me.

I could have posted a recent pic of us but old ones are much more fun. :)

You can see more terrible pictures of us in the past here.

(Love you Koni!)

And of course I was spoiled with my annual birthday dinner with all of my San Diego BFF’s! LOVE these girls! Every one of them. I swear this dinner gets more fun every year.

Two friends had to get home just before we took the picture.

(Katy and Vanessa your smiling faces were missed! And Shari you are forever missed.)

Another fun girls night out. Another year I am so grateful for all of my wonderful friends!

And because it’s my birthday tradition… a look back on my birthday dinners.

They all just LOVE that I do this btw.

They really don’t but I do it anyway. Because that’s what friends are for. And I’m a good one. :)

When Vanessa sent a text out to plan my b-day dinner she reminded everyone of the dreaded blog picture. What to wear!? Oh the pressure..

{2009}

{2010}

{2011}

{2012}

{2013}

{2014}

So 37 is off to a wonderful start! Such a fun week of celebrating. I always get a bit nostalgic and sappy around my birthday. Ok. I’m a bit nostalgic and sappy all the time. But it does get worse around my birthday because I always reflect on how fortunate I am to have so many wonderful people in my life. From my family to my girlfriends to my blog/facebook friends. I am one lucky girl. One lucky 27 year old. At heart. :)

Now that I am back to reality (good-bye spa day! I’ll never forget you!) I will be back to regular posting again. As regular as I get these days. Lots to share next week!

Thanks for putting up with another year of my sap.

xoxo, Erin

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03.10.14

Shopping Fun

My iPhone has been busy lately. Snapping pics of all sorts of things I’m seeing that would be fun for the house. Like I mentioned I’m trying to take my time decorating. I don’t want to buy stuff just to fill the house up. I want to buy things I really love and will use. So I’ve been doing a lot of “possibility shopping” as I like to call it. :) Finding things that may or may not work. Considering all sorts of fun options! Here are a few things I’ve seen and loved that I thought you might like too..

Oh be still my heart. The Container Store. I can’t explain the giddiness that pulses through me as I walk these isles. Pick your bin. Any bin! Works of art. :)

LOVED these blue/green office products. I seriously spent 10 minutes trying to figure out where I could make them work in my house. I don’t need them. But I wanted to need them so badly. :)

How much fun is this wall of colorful chairs!? Crate and Barrel. Such a happy wall.

I finally picked out address numbers for the house. It’s been on my to-do list for I don’t know… a year? Loved the style/finish of these sandcast numbers. They work perfectly with the outside of our home.

Not so sure about these???

Or these.

A little scary.

This perfect for me table I found at Home Goods. Fell in love with it. Bought it. Brought it home. And then returned it. :( It was just too small for where I wanted to put it. Several places I wanted to put it. Then I tried to convince Kenny that we needed to keep it in our bedroom even though the color clashed with our paint. We can re-paint, right I asked? No he answered. (Probably should have waited until we’ve been in the house at least a year before I hit him with that one. Live and learn.) :)

Hard for me to pass up a good mason jar.

You can never have too many in my book.

Or in my cupboard.

Spring time in Pottery Barn!

Speaking of warmer weather, Target has really fun outdoor chairs!

And colorful graphic place mats.

And these darling poufs!

Considering this Welcome mat for the front door but I need to look around a bit more.

And yellow Nate Berkus drawer organizers!

Because I wanted to end on a sunny note.

Happy Monday!

xoxo, Erin

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Organization

03.06.14

Headband Organization

Popping in to share how I’m organizing my girls’ headbands today! I have been prioritizing their bathroom this week and almost have things completely organized. Such a nice feeling since it has been a mess since we moved in!

In my girls’ bathroom in our previous home I hung all of their hair bows on ribbons.

I just looped the headbands through the top large ribbon. Worked great.

Until our headband collection grew so much it no longer fit.

In large part due to a certain someone who is as obsessed with headbands as she is mom’s shoes. :)

In my girls’ new bathroom we have plenty of drawer/storage space. Such a change from their last bathroom! So for now (until we find a different way to utilize all of these drawers) I have the luxury of using an entire drawer for headbands.

I found this wire basket from The Container Store and knew it would be a perfect solution for us.

I could have just tossed them all inside the basket. That works fine except it’s harder to see what your options are at a glance. Since we are usually rushing in the mornings before school starts, I decided to line them up on the sides of the basket. Now we can easily see them all and there’s no wasted time rummaging through the basket to find that oh so perfect accessory. :) Those minutes in the morning add up! Streamlined systems = calmer mornings.

Plenty of room for all of the flowers/frilly headband stuff on the inside.

And on the outside of the basket some of the smaller headbands actually stick through the wire which holds them in place. But even the big headbands that don’t stick through stay in place. When I first placed them like this I thought if they all start falling off the basket this will drive me nuts. But they don’t! The wire basket is a great solution.

So behold – the headband drawer. Girls know how to quickly find what headband they want to wear and where to put them back at the end of the day.

And there is now peace in the land.

Or at least in the girls’ bathroom.

xoxo, Erin

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Home Decor

03.04.14

Front Entry

Sharing a few pics of our front entry today! When you walk in our front door you see into our formal living room and then out into the backyard. Our entry is a simple square so when we were in the planning stage we decided it would be fun to do something different with the floor so that it stood out a bit more.

Here is our original sketch of the entry floor plan. Most of the floors throughout our house are wood so we decided to keep some wood in a criss cross pattern and put marble tile in the squares. I was a little nervous at first that this would look too busy and I kept going back and forth about whether or not I should keep this pattern or just leave the entry simple with only hardwood, but I ultimately decided to mix it up and go with the pattern. I’m so glad I did! I really like how it turned out.

Here is a pic I snapped with my phone when they had just laid the hard wood. This took a LONG time for my hardwood guy to make all the cuts exactly perfect. He was all about attention to detail – the two of us got along famously. :) He did such a great job lining everything up!

And here’s the floor all finished with the marble! I remember the morning I chose which piece of marble should go in each square/triangle. We came so close to not having enough marble to finish it all and I was stressed because each batch of marble is so unique that I would have had to order a whole new batch if I didn’t have enough. Luckily we had just enough to finish the entry!

A pic I snapped with my phone from the upstairs after the wood was finished.

And here is what it looks like from above today! Still love that orb light. :)

A few more pics of the entry…

This picture I took standing in our formal living room so you can see how the pattern is just on the entry way floor.

I was going to get shots from a few more angles but a certain someone crashed my photo shoot. No more pictures mom! Time to pay attention to me!

So that’s a wrap on the entry post.

xoxo, Erin

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Uncategorized

03.03.14

Cleaning out hair and make-up brushes

Happy March everyone! So excited for this month. It’s always a favorite of mine. :) We had a cozy weekend full of non-stop RAIN. I loved it. Except for the wind! Friday the wind blew so hard that trees were falling right and left. One of our front yard trees fell but we luckily saved it!

I know. This is hardly extreme weather for most of you, but it sure mixed things up around here. :)

Rain always puts me in the mood to organize! I got a great jump start on a few projects and did a little spring cleaning. Because I’m ready for spring! I’ve been organizing a few things in my new bathroom and decided it was time to clean out all of our brushes again.

How often do you clean your hair and make-up brushes? A couple of years ago I was flipping through a magazine and came a crossed an article that said you should wash your brushes out every two months. I’ll be honest – that doesn’t happen around here! But ever since I first posted about this I have been better about washing them out whenever they start looking like they need it.

(Picture from my previous house)

It’s actually such a quick/easy thing to do. To wash your hair brushes, first comb out any excess hair with a hair pick or comb. Then just fill your sink with hot water and add little soap or shampoo and soak your brushes for 10 -15 minutes. After they’ve soaked a few minutes I like to swish them back and forth several times. Then rinse them off and set them on a paper towel to dry.

With my make-up brushes I just wet the brush, rub a little shampoo into it, and then rinse. They clean up beautifully. Nothing like starting the day with clean hair and make-up brushes! And in an organized bathroom drawer? Even better. :)

Enjoy your Monday everyone!

xoxo, Erin

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Home Decor

02.28.14

Family Room Decor Update!

YEA! Friday is here. Best day of the week. Sometimes the anticipation of the weekend is even better than the actual weekend. Right? I’m so excited to share how our family room is coming along with all of you! I have slowly been chipping away at it. I have to tell you I am no where NEAR done decorating this space so I know it looks very bland at the moment. We are working on getting the big pieces of furniture in place and then the fun, colorful accessorizing can happen (most excited for that part!).

We looked at SO many couches the last few months we were building. Our previous couches in our old house we had for 11 years and they were literally holding on by a thread. Like I seriously had a safety pin or two in various spots. :) So I knew this next couch would be with us for the long haul and I wanted to make sure it was the look I wanted and really comfortable. The Pottery Barn Comfort Sectional fit the bill. I love the feel of the cushions and the slipcover look. These pics were taken soon after it was delivered and it really needs to be ironed! Or steamed. Or something. Ignore the wrinkles. :)

I made a ~~stupid~~ brave decision to upgrade to a fabric that is mostly linen. I can’t remember the name of it – I’ll have to look for my swatch if anyone wants to know. It’s an oatmeal color that has grey tones in it.

I mentioned earlier that I wanted something that matched my light fixture and this is exactly what I was picturing.

We almost put two smaller couches in this room with an end table in the middle, but decided on this sectional to maximize seating space. So glad now because the corner is the spot we all fight to sit in! I’m sitting in that corner of the couch blogging as we speak. Or as I type I should say. I feel like we’re all just chatting, don’t you? :) This couch was also great for the space because we had to find something that left the main walkways open. You can see the walkway from the kitchen on the left in the picture above.

And this walkway on the right so that the french doors are easy to access. We must have measured over 50 times to get the exact size figured out.

So I have to tell you a quick story about my couch. I talked myself into the nice, not so easy to wipe off fabric (because I loved it!) telling myself “we’ll be careful.. my kids don’t eat in the family room.. we never had major spills on our old couches..” One week after we bought this couch Kole got sick and threw up ORANGE GATORADE all over it! I kid you not. We were all sitting on the couch talking and out of the blue he just threw up! ORANGE! I about died!! I stood up and said in shock “that did NOT just happen!” Then Kole started crying and I forgot about the couch and rushed him to the bathroom and while I hugged and loved and took care of my sick little boy Kenny took off the slipcover (thank goodness I had enough sense to at least get the slipcover!) and rushed it to the dry cleaners. It mostly came out but there is a slight orange ring around one part of the seat so we flipped it on the other side. Can you believe that!? 11 years and three babies with my old cheap couches and nothing like that ever happened. We buy this nice new couch and BAM. One week later – orange Gatorade. Never fails! Fully aware now that I was an idiot to not get the everyday suede that wipes clean. Alas. Beauty over function never wins when little people are involved. :)

K. I’ll stop rambling. On to more decor!

I bought this teal ottoman from World Market for a coffee table. SUCH a great deal and I love it! But it didn’t work at all. We tried it turned the other way and it just wasn’t long enough. It obviously doesn’t look right turned this way either. (Can you tell my kids are in the zone in this pic? Must have been a good episode of Paw Patrol.)

So I tried moving it to the right side of the fireplace.

and then the left side of the fireplace.

Didn’t like it in those spots either.

LOVE the splash of color, but way too small and short for those spaces.

I am keeping it and still trying to figure out where in my house it will work.

So I searched high and low for weeks on-line for a coffee table I loved that fit the space better and decided on the Dutch Industrial Coffee Table from Restoration Hardware.

It wasn’t slid in the exact spot here yet – they had just delivered it when I took this pic. And the lovely plastic floor guards will be moved once we get a rug. But it fits the space perfectly!

I love the rustic, reclaimed wood, farmhouse vibe so this look really appeals to me. Not so much to my mom who pointed out when she was here last that my coffee table might give her slivers. :)

This is also a much better solution for us because every night after the kids are in bed our coffee table is piled high with papers, magazines, laptops, my lemon water, Kenny’s Coke Zero, stuff we are working on. We needed something flat and durable. :)

I haven’t started styling my media shelves yet. I’ve just been rounding up a few things I might use…

These beautiful blue glass bottles were a Christmas present I ~~relentlessly begged~~ slightly suggested Kenny could get for me. I’m not sure if I’ll use them all together like this or split them up.

I may use a few of the silver containers I’ve been collecting.

I found this beachy sign at Home Goods for 10 bucks and put it up debating if I should bring some orange in the room with the aqua. Not sure about that one??

Also at Home Goods I picked up these beautiful lanterns! Love them. I especially love that one of them has a silver handle and one of them has a rope handle. They won’t go in this space – I don’t like the white against the white. But I know they will find a happy home somewhere!

I loved the dutch coffee table so much that I also ordered the console table that matches it for the right side of the fireplace.

I wasn’t sure about this console table at first, but now I have fun plans for it so I think it’s a keeper. Unless I change my mind tomorrow. Maybe that’s why I shop at Restoration Hardware so much. They are really good about returns. Which makes them really good for indecisive people like me. :)

I ordered something for the left corner of the room that I’m so excited about! I’ll show you as soon as it gets here. I’m dying to figure out something big and tall to use as a backdrop for my mantel – a mirror? Reclaimed wood? Not coming up with anything for that yet. My mantel is hard because it’s so big and deep. Everything I put on it looks too small and out of scale.

So here are a few pics of my family room in its current, incomplete state…

It’s a start! Progress. I’ve chosen curtain fabric for the french doors and some of my pillow fabric too but this post is quickly turning into a novel so I’ll share those swatches later. Would love to hear what you think so far! Unless you hate it. And think my coffee table will give you slivers.

;)

Love you mom.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

xoxo, Erin

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02.25.14

Ski Trip

We’re back! We’ve been gone by the way. Sorry for the blog absence. My kids had last week off of school so we spent the week skiing in Brian Head, Utah. Home away from home! I grew up camping and skiing on Brian Head Mountain and it felt so great to be back! Forgive the overload of pictures. I haven’t had time to scrapbook in what feels like a decade so this blog is the only family journaling I’ve got at the moment. And I don’t want to forget this trip. The past three years we haven’t traveled much (other than to visit family). We’ve been busy with babies and building a house and well.. there was that time I almost died. It’s been eventful to say the least! But not a lot of travel. Which we love. So one of our New Year’s Goals was to have more fun trips in our lives and less babies and building and almost dying. ;)

Kenny and I have always loved skiing but this was the girls’ first trip. (I left my little buddy at grandma’s for a week of non-stop fun). We signed the girls up for ski school in the mornings and then skied with them in the afternoons.

My little ski bunnies! They were in hot pink pants and the helmets we rented them happened to be bright neon green. You could see the California girls coming a mile away. :)

Of course Kenny’s Charger coat was easy to spot too. Nope. Not going to lose any of my family on the mountain. That Charger coat was quite a conversation piece. Everywhere we went people either loved us or hated us. Or just wanted to chat with us about football and San Diego. We didn’t mean to make a statement. We just don’t own much in the way of cold weather clothes. :)

The girls were a little unsure at first.

They spent the first day going on “the magic carpet” – a little escalator type machine that takes them to a tiny slope to practice.

They also spent a lot of the first day on the ground.

But before long they got the hang of it and were cruising!

With their ski school friends making their way down the hill.

Kenny and I tried to not be helicopter parents (which was so hard for us because we both totally are helicopter parents) so for the most part we stayed away from their class. But every once in a while we couldn’t resist checking in on them. We got there the second morning just in time to see them on the lift for the first time. By themselves!! My heart almost dropped right out of my chest. I panicked. Will they know what to do!!? To sit back in their seat!!? To point up their ski tips to get off!!? To NOT FALL OUT!!? Kenny kept saying “they’ll be fine.” And they were. They were amazing. Turns out their teacher taught them to sit back in their seat and point their ski tips up and to not fall out.

Whew. :)

Once I knew the kids were well taken care of I felt free to enjoy the trip. Kenny and I headed to the more advanced mountains every morning after we dropped the girls off at the bunny hill. I haven’t skied in years and wondered if I’d remember how! But it’s like riding a bike. You pick up right where you left off. Such an exhilarating feeling flying down the mountain! Fulfills my need for speed. :) When the sun would peek out of the clouds everything was absolutely breathtaking. I love this sport! I kept stopping Kenny to say “isn’t this gorgeous!? Isn’t this fun!? We are so lucky to be here!” He finally asked if we could stop having “gratitude moments” and just ski down the hill. Ha. So I just had gratitude moments in my head while I was flying down the mountain. :)

At the highest point on the mountain. Brrr! So cold!
It was hard to smile for this picture because my lips were numb.
San Diego has made us wimps when it comes to the cold.

A few more random pics…

The lodge we stayed at was in walking distance so every day we would ski until the lifts closed at 4:30 and then head straight to the hot tub at the lodge. They had a heated indoor pool too that the girls loved. Then we’d toss on some clothes and go to dinner. One night we had our food delivered to the room. Kenny caught up on work/e-mails while the girls and I ate and watched Mary Poppins.

I also watched the Olympics each night to pick up some tips for my ski jumps. ;)

Kole had such a great time with grandma and grandpa that he didn’t want to leave what he called his “Utah Vacation.”

The girls were sad when the trip ended too. They loved skiing and can’t wait to do it again next year. I feel the same way!

Now we are home and back in the swing of things with laundry piled high and a million things to catch up on. Bummer! Always hard to get back in the swing of things after a fun vacation. So yesterday to ease back into things I decided not to unpack and to style my kitchen shelves instead. :) Lots of fun progress in the house to post about! Wonder how long I dare put off that laundry…

xoxo, Erin

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02.20.14

fun finds (and new pillow fabric!)

If you’ve been reading this blog for long you know I love to decorate with lemons.

We had several fruit trees in our previous house but none of them did as well as our lemon tree.

It produced lemons at an insane rate and simply picking the lemons became a regular job at our house.

Lucky for us we always had lots of help with this chore.

(my girls were so little in this picture!)

So when we chose trees for the new house, lemon trees were at the top of my list for two reasons. Number one – I clearly can’t kill them. Which is huge because I’m about as good at landscaping as I am cooking. And number two – I still love to decorate with them!

I found this cool wooden bowl (would you call this a bowl?) at Home Goods and knew it would be perfect to hold lemons on my counter.

I’ve been trying to drink lemon water more often (so many health benefits!) so it’s handy to have them out on the counter like this.

I also love the way the wood warms up my kitchen a bit. I’m planning to add a lot more wood throughout my house. I haven’t really started decorating my kitchen yet. A few things on the open shelves, but I’m taking my time waiting to find things I really love and find useful.

My new wooden lemon holder is fun decor and so practical for me with my overflowing supply of lemons. A keeper for sure.

I guess I do have one more kitchen counter accessory I didn’t mention.

Soothing color palate don’t you think? :)

Also at Home Goods I found these fun Ikat organizers. I loved the pattern and color so much I picked up six of them! Such a steal at 4 bucks each. I’m not sure what drawers they are going in yet, but I’m sure they’ll find a happy home in no time.

Oh! And I decided to bring some navy into my formal dining room! I’m adding pillows in the two fabrics on the right so this picture shows the final bench/chair/pillow combination. Can’t wait to see them in the room with the new yellow rug. :)

Anyone else a fan of Home Goods? I find so many random cool, inexpensive things for my home in that store!

xoxo, Erin

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